Speed Dating: Love at First Sight

“Where would you tattoo my name?” “Would you put a leash on our kid?” and “Would you like me to assign someone to butter your muffin?” were just a few of the suggested questions thrown around during this year’s Speed Dating, which took place in Grainger Auditorium on Saturday.Speed Dating attracted many students with its spontaneity and the encouragement they received from returning students who attended the first Speed Dating event last spring. An ideal way to meet new people and potentially find an EP date, Grainger Auditorium was met with many eager students, both new and returning.“It was a success,” Secretary of Student Council and upper Benjamin Cohen said. “We had a lot more people this year than last year, which I thought was awesome. It went exactly how we expected it would.”“I actually met some people that I talked to during Speed Dating,” returning lower Chudi Ikpeazu said. “I could tell that some new students were nervous about it and taking it a bit seriously, but I think it's a good way for people to meet within the first few weeks of the year.”Many new students agreed, seeing Speed Dating as a way to “break the ice” amongst their new peers. Prep Oreoluwa Solanke said it “helped her feel more adjusted [at the Academy].”“I thought it was really funny and interesting, ” Solanke said. “I met a lot of new people and made some friends. ”“There were definitely a lot of new students there – we were expecting a lot of returning students to come because they all went last year, but we definitely weren't expecting so many new students, ” Cohen said. “Everyone seemed like they had a lot of fun. ”Tables were lined and filled with Exonians who chatted with their “mini date” across from them for one minute and then rotated around the table. Students were encouraged to use the pick up lines, questions and movie references found on each table as conversation starters.“I thought the answers to the questions were really funny but kind of inappropriate,” upper Callan Malone said. “Some preps were really freaked out.”“I loved the questions – my favorite one was “I'm usually on top of things, would you like to be one of them?” Solanke said. “The only problem was that not everybody was rotating every minute. Some people just stayed with their dates for a long time.”“A good thing was that you weren't necessarily paired with someone of the opposite gender,” new lower Helena Guenther said. “[Speed Dating] was more about getting to know new people, not necessarily finding a date.”Malone felt that the timing of Speed Dating this year allowed for more chances to meet new people.“Speed Dating was different this year because last year it was in spring, so I knew a lot more people, ” Malone said. “This year there were definitely a lot more strangers. ”“Overall I thought Speed Dating went really well, ” Cohen said. “There isn't anything I would change. ”